Sours arrested again for meth

Saturday

Apr 5, 2014 at 7:00 PM

By Don Reiddwreid@aol.comCOLDWATER — The man whose name, according to Branch County Circuit Judge Bill O’Grady, "is synonymous with meth in Branch County," Jerald Sours, is back in jail after planning a meth party.According to the probable cause affidavit, Ben Turner learned Sours, 49, of Coldwater, along with three women and another man, were on the way to Turner's Quincy home on March 19 to smoke meth. Turner did not want them there and called police.There were videos at the house of Sours smoking meth previously while the women watched. Michigan State Police troopers confronted the group when they arrived.Sours had a quantity of meth on him. One of the women had two bags of the drug; one of the women admitted she had just eaten some meth provided by Sours.All admitted using with Sours on prior occasions. The group also said Sours was operating a meth lab.Kara Dunn, 37, of North Adams was charged with use of meth, a one-year misdemeanor. Because of two prior meth lab convictions Sours was charged with meth lab operation and the penalty was doubled to 40 years.He was also charged with possession of the drug as a 20-year felony.Branch County Prosecutor Ralph Kimble upped the penalty, charging Sours as an habitual offender based on 1986 and 1998 convictions for stolen property crimes in both Branch and Hillsdale counties. As a fourth repeat offender he could face life in prison.Warrants were issued for the other four at the party. Bond for Sours was set at $150,000.In Februay 2010 O’Grady sentenced Sours to a minimum 23 months on a 2008 meth case and three years on a 2009 meth case. The maximum sentence for possession of the drug in both cases is 10 years."I hope you can be rehabilitated, but you must be punished for you crime spree," O'Grady said after Sours pleaded he needed help.Sours was paroled last June from prison.